Abstract: A ski pole assembly and a ski pole and ski glove combination. The grip includes a central core member of a relatively hard low friction material and an outer sheath member of a relatively soft high friction material. The core member includes raised pads proximate the upper end of the grip and the sheath includes windows receiving the pads so as to expose the pad surfaces and provide low friction pivot areas proximate the upper end of the grip to facilitate the swinging movement of the pole. The core member includes a downwardly opening bore receiving the upper end of the shaft of the ski pole and allowing the shaft to be adjustably positioned in the bore to selectively vary the overall length of the ski pole.

Abstract: In a multimedia video production control system, equipment supplied by various manufacturers is integrated to allow a consumer to control the equipment and edit a production at a centralized location. An adapter unit, interfaced to each camera and pan/tilt mount unit to be used with the system, feeds a cable which, in turn, connects to a camera interface module containing cable compensation and amplification circuitry so that the signals generated by the various cameras may be combined in a commercially available video switcher unit at a consistent level. In the preferred embodiment, each camera interface unit feeds a computer interface unit, and the computer interface units communicate with a personal computer over a standard interface.

Abstract: Force-releasable elements are used in association with imprinted numerical values of weight to provide a visual indication of the weight of the contents of a receptacle. The system is extremely easy to manufacture and highly affordable, thus enabling it to be used with disposable items such as trash bags. In one embodiment, the numerical weight values are arranged as bands about the girth of the bag, with the imprinted material being gathered in and covered with a force-releasable strip of material. Each imprinted band and its accompanying force-releasable element are associated with a different value of weight, so that when the receptacle is lifted, a user may ascertain an approximate value of the weight of the contents by referring to the indicia associated with released and un-released elements. In alternative embodiments, the force-releasable elements and indicia being positioned along a cord of a strap which may be tied onto the receptacle or provided with it.

Abstract: An accelerator pedal for electronic, "by wire" control which provides the customary feel of mechanical control systems heretofore predominantly in use including a hysteresis effect. Readily available simple mechanical components coupled to a sensing and transmitting device are employed.

Abstract: An improved snubber assembly for interconnecting a driving conveyor assembly to a driven conveyor assembly. The snubber assembly includes a shield tube adapted to be attached to the driven conveyor assembly, a cylinder structure, a piston, and a piston rod. The cylinder structure includes a hollow inboard end portion defining a cylinder bore and slidably received in the bore of the shield tube and a solid outboard end portion closing the outboard end of the cylinder bore and positioned outside of the tube bore for attachment to the driving conveyor assembly. The piston is slidably mounted in the cylinder bore and a clevis is secured to the outboard end of the piston rod and fixedly mounted within the bore of the shield tube by a pin passing through the walls of the tube and through the clevis.

Abstract: In a position detection probe having a magnetostrictive wire stretched between a head and a reflective foot end termination, and a magnet displaceable along the probe and using the sonic pulse propagation time from the magnet to the foot end termination as a position detection parameter, compensation for thermal expansion and thermal change of propagation velocity is made by measuring the wire resistance and calculating a compensation from the resistance. The probe is excited by an electrical pulse having a known current. The voltage across the wire is measured at a time when the current has stabilized to a precise value, and resistance is determined from the current and voltage.

Abstract: A locking assembly consisting of a post device is positionable in floor adjacent to a door permitting the door to be no more than partially opened. The locking assembly comprises a base fixture permanently mounted in the floor, and a post in the base assemmbly which can be raised so as to block the door against being completely opened, or lowered to permit the door to be completely opened. The locking member is releasably coupled within the fixture by means of a post connection. The post is raised or lowered by turning the post clockwise or counterclockwise until a pin located at the bottom of the post engages with a slot in the post thereby permitting the post to raised or lowered.

Abstract: In making busbar conductors, this invention saves the material of busbars that form the circuits on the boards to lower the cost, and improves the workability of the busbars to be punched. In busbar conductors each having a plurality of busbars of desired patterns arranged on an insulating substrate, the busbars are punched out selectively from two or more conductive materials with different conductivities.

Abstract: An axial flow pump for handling debris-laden viscous fluid flow, for example of the type encountered in cleaning up oil spills in off-loading stricken oil tankers. The pump includes a bell- or venturi-shaped intake, rotating impeller mounted in the intake, a fixed stator downstream of the impeller, and suitable hydraulic motor means for rotating the impeller to pull oil through the pump from the intake inlet to an outlet. The surface of the intake is specially contoured at a first region from the inlet to the throat or impeller face to reduce and compensate for cavitation and viscous boundary layer growth in that region. A second portion of the intake from the throat or impeller face to the impeller exit is also specially contoured to compensate for viscous boundary layer growth, but modified in view of the impeller-generated forces and debris concentrations in that region which affect viscous boundary layer growth.

Abstract: X-ray dispersive elements comprise a stacked array of layer pairs of boron nitride and either nickel, tungsten, chromium, vanadium, iron, manganese, cobalt and combinations thereof. The boron nitride is preferably deposited through a planar magnetron sputtering process.

Abstract: A device for suspending a vessel from its rim includes a vertically oriented member having at least one notch to receive a section of the rim, the geometry of the notch being characterized in that if a user of the device inserts the rim section and lets go of the vessel it will remain suspended in a desired orientation. Although particularly suited to suspending clay pots of the type used horticulturally, the device is equally suited to any type of rimmed receptacle. A system of holes and pegs may additionally be provided to support the bottom of the vessel. Preferably the notch is formed with a straight blade which creates opposing surfaces that catch on upper/inner and lower/outer points along the rim, respectively.

Abstract: An ocular mounting assembly for adjustably mounting a pair of ocular devices, such as telemicroscopic loupes, to an eyeglass frame or head mount with linear and rotational adjustments through five degrees of freedom. The ocular mounting assembly includes an adjustable ocular support assembly and an adjustable clamp assembly rotatably attached to the ocular support assembly. The ocular support assembly provides interpupillary distance, convergence angle and view direction adjustment of the ocular devices, which are rotatably attached to the support assembly. The adjustable clamp assembly provides height and view angle adjustment of the ocular devices and allows the ocular devices to be flipped up out of the way when not needed. The height adjustment in conjunction with the view angle adjustment allows the line of sight to be adjusted while the ocular devices are positioned close to the eye or eyeglass lens.

Abstract: A blister card display package including a display card and a blister pack mounted on the card and including a blister portion for containing an article to be displayed. The card is folded in half to define identical front and rear portions having free edges which are aligned with the card in its folded configuration and the blister pack is mounted on the front face of the front portion of the card and includes a tab portion adapted to fit over the aligned free edges of the folded card. The tab portion releasably maintains the card in its folded configuration but readily allows the card, following removal from a display peg, to be moved to its open position to allow the potential purchaser to examine the descriptive and advertising material contained on the outer and inner surfaces of the front and rear portions of the card.

Abstract: A friction clutch coupling an engine and a gear transmission of a vehicle is controlled by a microprocessor based circuit using logic which defines operating modes according to engine and clutch conditions. During the time of clutch closure, when the vehicle is starting from rest in a startup or launch mode, the throttle or other engine control signal is restrained from quickly responding to the accelerator pedal. This avoids engine overspeeding which results from generating high torque before sufficient clutch capacity has been achieved. The control signal is developed as a function of the pedal position under control of throttle logic which, in turn, is dependent on clutch operating modes defined by the clutch logic.

Abstract: A holographic probe facilitates the measurement of radiative effects such as Raman scattering or fluorescence of a remotely disposed sample. Improving upon prior-art techniques, the probe teaches a substantially in-line path between the sample and an output optic wherein a narrowband reflective element, preferably holographically recorded, is used to fold excitation energy from an illumination path into the collection path and reject any Rayleigh scattering received from the sample. The improved configuration further allows a dispersive filtering element to be placed in the illumination path, which may be used in conjunction with spatial filtering to reject non-excitation wavelengths.

Abstract: An improved meter mounting pedestal for use in providing underground utility service, particularly electric service to a building construction site after a foundation has been constructed but before the building has been erected. The pedestal comprises a vertical post of planar configuration having a rolled side edge along one side and a flange along a portion of the side opposite the rolled side edge. A flat steel upper plate having a rolled side edge is secured near the upper end of the post with the rolled side edge of the plate being adjacent to and in an overlapping relationship with a rolled side edge of the post. A second plate is secured to the post near the lower end thereof and is mounted to the outside face of the building foundation. A foundation anchor strap is adjustably secured to the post between ends thereof are in mounted to an appropriate surface of the building foundation or floor joist.

Abstract: A pallet cleaner especially suitable for use in cleaning plastic pallets. The cleaner includes a vertically oriented horizontally extending chamber having a vertically oriented entry opening at one end of the chamber and a vertically oriented exit opening at the other end of the chamber. The pallets are loaded on edge into the chamber through the vertically oriented entry opening, moved through the chamber on edge while a heated pressurized fluid is directed against the upper and lower sides of the pallet, and thereafter are moved on edge out of the chamber through the exit opening. The cleaner further includes wheels so that the cleaner is portable and may be rolled to the site of pallets to be cleaned rather than requiring the pallets to be cleaned to be brought to the site of the cleaner.

Abstract: A fastener setting tool including an anvil housing having an offset anvil portion and a collet positioned slidably in the anvil housing and including an offset portion coacting with the offset anvil portion of the anvil housing to defined an offset nose assembly. The tool further includes a cylinder housing secured to the anvil housing and defining a central bore slidably receiving a piston. A draw bar interconnects the collet and the piston with the collet and piston maintained in a precise and rigid position on the draw bar utilizing a reduced diameter threaded portion on one end of the draw bar coacting with a nut threaded onto the reduced diameter threaded portion and engaging an outboard end of the piston.

Abstract: In a video cassette recorder (VCR) adapted for use in conjunction with a television (TV) receiver, a audio signal generator is used to produce an audio signal in response to key closures made on the VCR's remote unit with the TV speaker being used as an audio output device. In an alternative embodiment, the audio generator is in the form of a speech synthesizer which generates a human-voice message in response to commands entered via the keypad. The main VCR housing may alternatively come equipped with its own speaker, obviating the need to feed the audio signals to the TV.

Abstract: A hydraulic control apparatus, more particularly for operating a motor vehicle clutch release mechanism, comprising a master cylinder, a slave cylinder and a conduit connecting the master cylinder to the slave cylinder. The apparatus is in the form of separate modular units which are separately filled with hydraulic fluid, and the filled modular units are shipped unconnected to a user. Each modular unit is provided with a leakproof quick-connect connector member, through which filling of the modular unit may be effected, and which mates with a complementary leakproof quick-connect connector member of another modular unit, such that after installation on a utilization device, a motor vehicle for example, complementary connector members are reconnected, thus opening ports in each connector member placing each member in fluid communication with the other. Preferably, the two connector members are provided with a one-way locking arrangement preventing separation of the connector members after coupling.